The timing of the burning of Notre Dame could not have been worse for Emmanuel Macron. The spire of the 850-year-old cathedral collapsed into the flames at 8pm, the time scheduled for his televised address to the nation.
The president had planned to tell his people in the broadcast what measures would be taken after the three months of Grand Debate, the consultation launched at the start of the year in response to the Yellow Vest protest movement. Instead, Macron rushed to Notre Dame and looked on as the inferno consumed the country’s most historic monument. “Notre-Dame is aflame,” tweeted the president. “Great emotion for the whole nation. Our thoughts go out to all Catholics and to the French people.”
The symbolism won’t be lost on Macron, who from the moment he took office has used his country’s rich history as a backdrop to his presidency. He made his victory speech in May 2017 at the Louvre, and that summer hosted Vladimir Putin in Versailles and invited Donald Trump to the Bastille Day celebrations.
That was when the world was in awe of the young president, the charismatic then-39-year-old who was the progressives’ antidote to the horrors of Brexit and Trump.
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